Wednesday, November 3, 1993

ILLINOIS -- Saying the man who intentionally killed his dog by running it over with his car was a "walking time bomb," a Kane County judge handed down the maximum sentence he could-and then some.

After sentencing Philip Rinn to jail for 30 days and ordering him to pay a $500 fine, Judge Donald C. Hudson told Rinn he must spend 100 hours working with the county's highway department-picking up the carcasses of dead animals.

Further, Hudson placed the 24-year-old St. Charles man on probation for two years.

During a two-hour hearing, Rinn testified he killed the dog because it had turned vicious and possibly rabid. He said he feared the dog might attack him or his family.

Rinn also disputed a Geneva police sergeant who testified that Rinn told him he had killed the dog because he was angry after the animal damaged his car and growled at his wife, and he did not want to pay to take it to a veterinarian.

And his attorney, Gerard Kepple, contended that Rinn's use of the automobile was the most humane way to kill the animal available to him at the time.

But in calling Rinn's credibility "severely deficient," Hudson said Rinn's explanation "amounts to a contrived defense of convenience."

Hudson said Rinn has shown "no respect and appreciation for the sanctity of life." He said that a report from the county's diagnostic center where Rinn went for psychological evaluation showed Rinn to be a man who has difficulty controlling his temper and a man who will "lash out physically."

The case stems from an incident in August in which Rinn took his dog, Royal, to Peck Road outside the city limits, where he killed the animal.

Police said Rinn admitted that he tied a chain around the neck of the dog, described as a light-colored Labrador retriever, and dragged it with his car. Police said Rinn told them that when the animal did not die, he ran it over with his car. The dog's body was found in a ditch two days later.